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Jul 27, 2018

Microsoft Employees Question C.E.O. Over Company’s Contract With ICE I Business I DealBook I NYT

Microsoft Employees Question C.E.O. Over Company’s Contract With ICE

Satya
Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, was presented with a petition
demanding the company cancel its contract with Immigration and Customs
Enforcement.CreditKyle Johnson for The New York Times

SAN
FRANCISCO — Microsoft employees questioned the company’s chief
executive, Satya Nadella, on Thursday, presenting him with a petition
signed by more than 300,000 people that called on the software maker to
cancel its contract with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency,
according to two people who attended the event.
Mr. Nadella was
attending an annual gathering with interns at Microsoft’s headquarters
in Redmond, Wash., when the employees used the question-and-answer
session to ask about the company’s government contracts, said the
people, who declined to be identified for fear of retaliation. One
employee presented Mr. Nadella with a USB stick that contained the
petition, along with the signatures, including 500 from Microsoft
employees, they said.

Image

Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash. Microsoft has been positioning itself as a moral leader of the technology industry.CreditStuart Isett for The New York Times

“We demand Microsoft stop enabling ICE’s mission to punish families seeking safety,” read the petition,
a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times. The petition also
called for all tech companies that support the operations of ICE and the
Customs and Border Protection agency to “cancel their contracts.”

The
presentation of the petition is the latest example of employee activism
at large tech companies against the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy
on immigration, which had resulted in children being separated from
their migrant parents earlier this year. The White House has backed down
from the policy, but the administration has struggled in recent weeks
to reunite children with their families.
Workers at several
Silicon Valley companies were up in arms over the issue, but Microsoft
came under particular scrutiny from its employees because the company
has a contract for processing data and artificial intelligence
capabilities with ICE. The agency had been separating migrant parents
and their children at the border with Mexico. Last month, Microsoft
employees circulated a letter that called on their employer to cancel all contracts with ICE, among other measures.
In response, Microsoft said
last month that to the best of its knowledge, its products and services
were not being used by federal agencies to separate children from their
families at the border. It added that it was “dismayed” by the Trump
administration’s immigration policy and urged that it be changed.
The scrutiny comes as Microsoft has been positioning itself as a moral leader
of the technology industry. Mr. Nadella and Microsoft’s president, Brad
Smith, have publicly said they wanted to protect user privacy and
establish ethical guidelines for new technology like artificial
intelligence.

Microsoft declined to comment on Thursday’s petition, but confirmed that Mr. Nadella had received the USB stick.
The
petition was started earlier this month by a coalition of nonprofit
organizations calling for immigration reform. A group of Microsoft
employees circulated the petition internally, collecting signatures. The
group then decided to present Mr. Nadella with the petition and use the
opportunity to raise their concerns directly with him, said employees
involved in Thursday’s encounter. They said they chose that day to
present the petition because it coincided with the deadline set by a
federal court to reunite children and parents who had been divided under
the former policy.
“Microsoft is complicit in profiting from a
violent and murderous mass incarceration and deportation scheme,” said
Scott Roberts, senior campaign director at Color of Change, a civil
rights advocacy group which helped start the petition. “Microsoft must take action in the one way that will make an actual impact, canceling the contract.”

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